One soul ruled by darkness, one guided by light, can they come together to make a future together full of love and trust? Or will all the evils working against them tear their love apart? As Amelia Bainbridge sneaks out of her best friend’s wedding reception she is attacked by something utterly disgusting and not of this world.  How does she know it isn’t of this world?  Well, when four green tentacles shoot from the body of the man standing over, she knows something just isn’t quite right about him.  As her life is about to come to an end because of this evil being, she sends a prayer heavenward, being the fairly good Catholic girl that she is, and is rewarded with one sexy man known as Hunter.  He saves her from the terrible green tentacled monster, but not before he takes quite an impact on his own body. So grateful is Amelia, that she takes him to her home and lets him recover there. They both have an instant attraction to each other that longs to be explored. There's a high price for loving him though, and Hunter knowing this, walks away due to his past and very unsteady present.

Hunter is a fallen angel. He was sent to earth by the heavenly father to watch over mortals of the earth, and he did, he just happened to commit a big sin when he fell in love with a mortal woman. When she died in childbirth his faith was seriously tainted and he wandered the world a shell of a man. Finding his soul bound to the Dark Prince of the underworld, his job is to convince mortal souls to join him and help the scheming, evil demon. His other job is to go after rogue demons sent to earth and think to disobey their evil master. He thought his heart had gone cold until he met Amelia. He knows that it is best he stay away from her, even though that is going to be one of the hardest decisions of his life. She will be in profound danger if his feelings were ever revealed and he isn’t willing to risk that. After futile efforts to get her out of his mind, and when that doesn’t work a little stalking, he comes back into her life and this time he won’t let her go.

Asmodeus is the Dark Prince of Lust. He is the ruler of the Ninth realm in hell. Hunter is his prized possession, he is invaluable to him. Trying to thwart Lucifer’s plan for the coming end of days, Asmodeus is counting on Hunter to play a vital role in that battle. He likes being the all powerful man in his realm, and doesn’t intend to give it up. He has a serious plot in mind that involves Hunter, Amelia, and to his hope their children.  The Ninth Realm, however, is filled with plots to destroy him and traitors are at every turn waiting for a weakness to show so that they may pursue it and kill the Dark Prince.

Erzsebet is Asmodeus’ main concubine. She was a true terror during her life on earth, torturing people for the most minor incidents. She is beautiful and sadistic, and she satisfies the Dark Prince’s primal needs. However, he is not her only lover. She has tarried with many men in the lower realm, including Hunter. When she finds Hunter has fallen in love she is out for vengeance and sends her own personal minions to destroy Amelia. Erzsebet's plans don’t stop there, though, as she is plotting to overthrow the Dark Prince himself, and he has no idea.   

A Terrible Tryst of Fate is a fascinating story. The romance is present, but there is also a mindboggling amount of world building going on. Christopher Newman does a wonderful job of creating new and unusual demons. His descriptions are graphically detailed when explaining the underworld. He created nine different realms of hell and nine different Dark Princes.  Not just one all powerful Lucifer. That in itself put a whole new spin on hell. I am really hoping that he writes future stories that show more of this.  he scenes involving Erzsebet could be viewed as disturbing so if you have a weak constitution be advised she is quite a sick, twisted woman. I thought this just added more depth to the story. In contrast to her is the tender love between Hunter and Amelia. What is really phenomenal is how the hero and heroine interact with each other, even after all he has seen and what he does, she still shows him love and has faith in him.   

A Terrible Tryst of Fate has an interesting take on hell, love, loyalty and betrayal.  The characters are well developed, and really flow together. The world that Newman builds is extreme and intense. It takes a couple go backs to completely grasp the new species of demons that he introduces to us, but ultimately he created a unique and very untypical hell. I was hooked to the story and polished it off quickly.  Hope to see more of Hunter and Amelia’s story in the future.